The 56th Hunger Games
by cosmokim
Summary: Told from the point of view of a Capitol viewer, we see the hair raising story of a brutal Hunger Games with vicious tributes. All sorts of people compete, and for the first time the story of a Capitol viewer is available. MUST READ.
1. Reaping

Reapings

 **I** sit down on the couch in my classic Capitol home. The reapings will begin in just a few short minutes, and I can't bear to miss them like I did last year. Well, the Games hold the country together and I love the tributes, hoping that I will pick the correct tribute to sponsor. Because, really, sponsoring the right child will help me become richer than my dear father.

The TV screen is now black, and getting brighter is the number 1. It spins and dances around the screen before settling in the center with the word "Luxury" under it. Then I see a view of the District 1 square and the escort. I don't really pay attention to the words...nobody does…, but I do pay attention to a girl volunteering for her district. She gives a cocky smile.

Then I see a boy chosen, but unluckily for him, nobody volunteers. Tears streaming down his cheeks, he walks slowly to the stage where the escort greets him with a smile. He looks fifteen, maybe sixteen, and it is very rare that nobody volunteers for the male tribute in District 1. I guess they don't want to after they saw Iron Fletcher die on television last year. I had nightmares for months.

Then the District 1 reapings are over and the screen is black once more, and the number 2 bounces across the screen until it stops with the word: Masonry, right under it. The escort is visible, then he draws a piece of paper. When he reaps a tiny thirteen year old girl, an older, stronger girl with a cocky smile volunteers. She walks up with her head up high and slaps the escort on the back.

The boy was an eighteen year old who seemed all too happy to be selected and meets the female tribute with a smile and shakes hands with her. They laugh and the escort says something to the screen and the entire district goes bananas. In District 2, reaping is not a solemn affair.

After that, the reapings lose their exciting air, and I see small children, no more than twelve or thirteen, selected in the districts of 3, 6, 9, 10, and 12. The rest of the tributes seem very capable, and I am wondering which one to choose to sponsor.

Then President Snow himself appears on the screen telling us that we should start preparing to sponsor our tributes, and the interviews would be on in three weeks at 11:00 A.M. I was very excited, and got my slip of paper out and decided to write down,"D2M", which is the standard Capitol way to write"District 2 Male." I just know that I have sponsored the right person.


	2. Interviews

**I** once again plop down onto the couch with a wonderful barrel of popcorn to keep me watching it. I see the Capitol seal and then the word "Interviews" in bright fancy letters. I lean back and get a drink, because the District 1 girl has already appeared on the screen. Confident that this will be a fun interview, I pay lose attention.

I hear that the District 1 girl is going for a cute sexy approach, which works if you look pretty. She certainly does and no doubt she will get many different sponsors. If only last year's girl was that cute. But I don't have time to brood. The boy is appearing onto the screen.

"My name is Goldenreef Teresino, and I am 13 years old. I am sad that I was selected, so PLEASE HELP ME!" He broke down very quickly, and that brings tears to my eyes. Even when he came, he looked on edge, and I can't bear to see him die.

He is so very scared, beating his fists on the interviewer as he sobs loudly. The interviewer pushes him off with disgust, and the Peacekeepers drag him away. I can't look at these interviews. The poor children sob, cry, fight, and I can't do anything. These games may not be very exciting, but there will be a great amount of begging and sobbing. As the timid boy from 12 finally steps down from the stage, I am sobbing, the audience is sobbing, because these were terrible, depressing interviews.

President Snow is back on the screen and he tells us that the scores will be up. The TV turns off, and I think about the tributes. Although about seven of the tributes broke down and another four were to timid to stand a chance, many of the tributes managed to stay calm. I rewatch the interviews to find out that the girl from 5 will do well by evading enemies, the boy from 7 is great with an axe, the boy from 8 competes with the boy from 2 as a killing machine.

But as I've learned, people can say anything in the interviews, but that won't change anything about how they'll do in the arena. Plus, they have to survive the bloodbath for sponsors to even matter. I know that many of the people who appealed to the crowd will not get out of the bloodbath so quickly.

Please let the boy from 2 survive. The point of these Games is money.


	3. Training Scores and Chariot Rides

I sit down for another episode on television. The word "Scores" is flashing on the screen and I want to see how my sponsored tribute is doing. I see the District 1 girl's picture, then her score. A score of 10. She's stronger than I anticipated. The boy from her district, however, only pulls a 5. Hardly enough to win any sponsors, unless they take pity on him.

The District 2 girl does well, with a score of 9. She can't quite compete with the girl from 1, but will still be a formidable opponent. I'm wondering if she will kill my sponsor. Oh. There he is, his score flashing. An 11. It looks like I chose well.

But even more surprising is that although most other tributes got between a 4 and a 7, hardly worthy of comment, the boy from 8 managed an 11 as well. I can't help but wonder what they did in the room to impress the judges that much. The lowest score was, surprisingly, a 1. I expected everyone to get at least a 3. That tiny little District 12 tribute did better than that.

I turn off the TV before President Snow comes on, and I get into a robe, go into the ultrashower, and brush my teeth. Then I wrap myself in a blanket and go to sleep. _Please let that boy survive, I could become rich if he does. Please please please._

The next time Hunger Games is on television, the announcer announces the chariots. I would have loved to be there, but I had to watch on TV.

At first, the District One tributes are dressed up very nicely. Their silver bodies and golden hair sparkle in the bright sunlight, and are covered by as little clothing as possible. The crowd screams their approval.

The District Two tributes are in blacksmith outfits. The boy is two feet taller than the girl, and he will be a formidable opponent as well. I hope he survives. The crowd also screams, but not of approval. They are disappointed by the plain outfits, not nearly as glamorous as last year, when they had dressed up as rusted iron. The crowd had been happy then.

The District 3 tributes are equipped with lights on them. The crowd loves it. District 4: nets with fish strapped on. Wonderful. District 5, with wires wrapping around them. Amazing. Why did the District 2 designer take a break from wonderful costumes? Even District 12 looked better than them. But no matter. District 2 will win the Games.


	4. Bloodbath

As I sit down on my couch, the screen is on already. I hear,"Let the 56th Hunger Games begin!".The timer had just started and I was ready to see the surroundings were dreary and dark: a swamp games. The best part to be in is the Cornucopia, which was likely planned by the Capitol. Tributes look scared, but most of them look defiant. Even angry. I can see that, but they need to focus otherwise they will die in the bloodbath.

The timer is almost at zero, and the tributes are in running positions. When the timer reaches zero, about six are already going into the forest, but eighteen or so stay in the Cornucopia. The Careers form their pack first thing and they cruise around, grabbing weapons. I see the girl from 1 stabbing somebody, the boy from 2 ripping somebody in half, and the boy from 4 trying to separate from the pack. He won't succeed.

Other tributes are still fighting, and as I watch people are dying, staining the brown dirt black. Blood oozes out of bodies in strange positions. I try to remind myself that many less are dead than it looks like. I see the occasional tribute disappear into the swamp. But the Careers are the center of attention, as they walk killing people in their way.

After ten minutes of intense fighting, non-Careers have either escaped or are dead. Loud cannons sound, ringing in my ears so I have trouble knowing how many are dead. I'll find out tonight.

The Careers are setting up camp and are chatting like friends. They talk of killing tributes and laugh. I manage to hear that ten are dead already. None of them were Careers. The Careers are vicious brutal people who are all to happy to kill. From previous experience in my long, long life, I know that they don't really like each other. Why would they.

The first day goes by quickly, between my eating, snacking, shopping, no one else dies and before I know it the Capitol music is playing and a seal is visible. The boy from 3 is the first to appear. Then the boy from 5. Both from 6. The girl from 7. Both from 9. The girl from 10. Finally, I see the faces of both tributes from District 12. The episode ends with a view of the Cornucopia after the bloodbath. I see bodies sprawled, but can only make out a few. I recognize the girl from 6, the boy from 9, and the boy from 12. Most of the others I cannot distinguish, because they were badly mutilated.

I have to get to bed. Tomorrow will be a big, big day.


	5. The Second Day

After the night, the Careers are hunting for tributes. I have just sat down when they find one. It's a girl, judging from the face and scream she emits. The Careers choose who kills her and the girl from 4 makes her move. With one swift motion she stabs the girl in the stomach. The cannon fires almost immediately.

The Careers walk away, talking and laughing as if they didn't just _kill_ somebody in cold blood. I think that they are heartless, but then I wonder what I would do if I was in their position. Would I let the girl live, even though I knew I'd have to kill her later, or would I kill her while I had the chance.

I no longer know what I'd do.

The Careers are still chatting, and I see the boy from 4 grab a water bottle, ask the Careers if they want any, and then he poisons the water before handing it to them. The girl from 4 takes a swig, starts coughing, and rolls over on the ground. The boy makes his getaway as the Careers notice what happened to her.

The boy from 2 angrily sees the boy from 4 running, and catches up to him. He grabs the District 4 boy by the collar of his shirt and brings him back to the other three Careers. They smile knowingly, and tell him that he will die a slow and torturous death.

The girl from 1 starts with cutting a slit in his wrist, making him wince. Then her district partner stabs him through that slit and he screams in pain. He screams on and on for a few minutes as the boy from 2 tells him,"That was only the beginning."

At that moment, the girl from 4's cannon fires. With new rage, the girl from 2 does the same procedure on his other arm and as he screams, the boy from 2 easily cuts through his bone, slicing his hand off. I cover my eyes as the screams get louder. After eleven or so minutes, I peek. The boy is still being tortured, but his face is white and he will soon die of blood loss. The others seem to know and they tell the boy,"Night night, sleep tight."

I don't look to see where he is stabbed, but his cannon fires almost immediately. The process of killing one tribute took an hour, but there are still seven hours until the day is deemed over. The Careers leave the three bodies on the ground and sprint away. The camera changes focus.

I now see the boys from 8 and 11 with the girl from 3. It seems that, they are in an alliance. The group runs through the swamp until they find that they are now in a forest. A stream of water runs through the forest and through the leaves they see a mountain. The boy from 8 had managed to get a water bottle and iodine, and he starts to purify water. The other two are discussing who is left.

"I heard three cannons earlier, so that, along with the bloodbath deaths, means that there are just eleven of us left. Probably six Careers, the three of us, and two other tributes. No idea who they are.

The boy from 8 and the boy from 11's district partners had not died in the bloodbath, so they wondered if they were still alive. "Probably not. My district partner would die in seconds."

They didn't notice that among the six that had originally ran into the swamp, there had been the girls from 8 and 11. I only noticed it because I pay special attention to the Hunger Games. The second day was really long.

By the time it was dusk, the camera turned onto the girl from 11. She ran through the swamp, and found a marsh. There was a freshwater lake that she could drink. She smiles as she gets in to the water to bathe. I can tell she is wondering what happened to her district partner and if he is still alive. I want so badly to tell her that he is alive, because even though she is still smiling, the smile doesn't travel to her eyes, and tears stream down her cheeks.

Then the faces start showing. I see the girl from 4's determined face, the boy from 4's slightly timid face, and the girl from 8, who had no expression. The day is finally over.

 **THANKS, guys for reading. I will take a little break from writing, so after this 4th chapter I'm done writing for a day or two.**


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